I've hung my overcoat at the crossroads of media technology and social change for the last 20 years as a journalist, author, and consultant. That includes a book - CauseWired: Plugging In, Getting Involved, Changing the World (Wiley) which chronicles the rise of online social activism - and bylines at The New York Times, The Daily Beast, Huffington Post, techPresident.com, Social Edge, Industry Standard, Inside, Worth and Contribute magazines, among many other publications. I co-founded three companies, including the pioneering '90s protoblog @NY and CauseWired, my consulting firm currently advising clients on the social commons. In my spare time, I'm an adjunct instructor of social media and philanthropy at New York University.

Did Your Facebook Just Turn Red? That's the Color of Our World Changing

If you’re on Facebook, there’s a lot of red on your screen today. And a bunch of equal signs as well. The Human Rights Campaign’s effort to turn attention to the Supreme Court’s hearing on arguments to overturn California‘s anti-gay marriage legislation has turned viral, scooped up what seems like every other profile picture on Facebook (and many on Twitter), and taken a cause once considered a quixotic special interest quest to the very beating heart of the consumer mainstream.

What emerged was not just support, but explicit eagerness in the support of gay marriage. In my view, that eagerness expressed itself in two ways. First, sheer numbers and diversity. That college roommate, the kid you went to high school with, your colleague from two jobs ago, that client, or an older person who you know, deep down, has changed her mind about homosexuality. Red equals signs cut across gender, age, location … and orientation.

According to HRC, prominent people who changed their Facebook profiles include U.S. Senators Chris Coons, Al Franken, Mazie Hirono, Frank Lautenberg, Bob Menendez, Chris Murphy, Patty Murray, Bernie Sanders, Brian Schatz, Jeanne Shaheen, Jon Tester, Mark Warner and Elizabeth Warren, as well as celebrities like George Takei, Tegan & Sara and Lance Bass. Two posts on the organization’s Facebook page urging people to share the simple original logo were shared more than 70,000 times.

While the Supreme Court justices may not consult Facebook as they consider the case before them, they will make their ruling on a rapidly changing public landscape. The Facebook campaign that exploded yesterday and expanded today is a classic visibility and awareness campaign. It showed support for one side of the case in question, but more importantly it demonstrated the vast shift in public attitudes on gay marriage – and it did so by showing rather than telling.

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Hey, interesting that you mention that. Check out what the Atlantic said about all the profile pic changes.

Facebook Data Science team rounded out their research with a closing remark. “For a long time, when people stood up for a cause and weren’t all physically standing shoulder to shoulder, the size of their impact wasn’t immediately apparent,” they wrote. “But today, we can see the spread of an idea online in greater detail than ever before.”

That “Red is a symbol for love, and that’s what marriage is all about,” is a given. Yet that this odd-looking rather militant blood red square is supposed to convey this seems like a joke. Want to BETTER get that point across? Try something like a █▄ϑ❤Ҽ 三lll彡█▄ąUgh 三lll彡█▄Ivℇ! campaign. Or use a simple ❤ symbol along with your message … For real. Is it just me or does this bizarre red image kinda freak you out?